Nvidia pulls malfunctioning WHQL drivers

Aharon Etengoff, 5th March 2010

Nvidia has removed the latest iteration of WHQL drivers from its website after a number of StarCraft II beta testers blamed 196.75 for the sizzling death of their PCs and video cards.

According to IncGamers, the "large amount" of overheating reports prompted Blizzard Entertainment to issue an official statement on its tech support forums after identifying the source of the problem.

"Some players were blaming the StarCraft II Beta client's latest patch, but a Blizzard Tech Support representative quickly explained the issue is caused by the latest Nvidia 196.75 drivers. Blizzard concluded the fans control in this Nvidia driver is not working properly," wrote Tom Hernandez.

"This means every single 3D application (i.e. games) running these drivers is going to be exposed to overheating and in some extreme cases it will cause video card, motherboard and/or processor damage. Some [may be] in serious trouble playing intensive games such as Prototype, World of Warcraft, Farcry 3, Crysis and many other games with realistic graphics."

For its part, Nvidia has acknowledged reports of certain "fan speed issues" with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers.

"We are aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers on Nvidia.com," an Nvidia spokesperson told IncGamers.

"Until we can verify and root cause this issue, we recommend that customers stay with, or return to 196.21 WHQL drivers. Release 196.75 drivers have been temporarily removed from our Web site in the meantime."